Behind The Cover: Channing Tatum on GQ's June Issue

We shot Channing before in a suit, did him once before in a shirt, tie, and leather jacket, as well as just a shirt and tie. We kind of covered all those bases. So for his fourth cover, the thought was to get rid of the tie and show Channing in a really casual way. So I played with one of the trends this season, short-sleeve button-front shirts. They’ve really reached saturation point and I think it’s time to embrace them. The trend has definitely moved past the nerdy accountant with the funny glasses--it’s turned into the hipster shirt of choice.

The thing that I really love about them is that they’re as slim cut as your long sleeve shirts, which is even more important in a short sleeve; you want it to be slimmer, especially around your guns, around your upper arm. It has to hit your shoulder in just the right place, it has to have a higher armhole. We did a ’60s look in this story, so it looks good tucked in, but guys should go for ones that have shorter shirttails so you can wear it un-tucked as well.

Back in the early ’60s, a lot of movie stars wore short-sleeve shirts and they looked really macho and awesome. The real retro inspiration hero here is Clint Eastwood and there’s a very specific picture of him washing a car in a short-sleeve shirt. What that did is take us to the next level. That gave us a sense of location, a sense of purpose and obviously a concept that we could riff off of. So, we looked to that famous picture of Paul Newman scrambling eggs in the kitchen with Joanne Woodward standing behind him. Clint Eastwood washing the car. There’s a picture of Rock Hudson at a putting green, there’s a picture of Steve McQueen in a director’s chair. I mean the floodgates opened, we could be very scrutinized and critical with our choices, but there were so many great ones out there that we started to build our character.

Channing was really excited to be even considered in that stratosphere, to be part of a shoot that drew inspiration from these stylish icons. We had a couple of talks beforehand and I explained that I wanted him to be a little bit more energetic. I even said at the end I want you to jump in the pool with the Frisbee and from the minute he saw the inspiration picture to when he jumped in the pool, which was the last shot, he was down for it. I think he really brought his heart and soul to it. If you watch 22 Jump Street or if you see some of his movies, you can see him play a stoic soldier, or a goofball, or a leading man and I think we got a mix of all of those here. We got the sexy, studly Channing, but we also got the goofy playful Channing. Then there are some other ones where he just looks very iconic, like when he’s wearing the cowboy hat on the couch.

If you look at it, you can see that the whole shoot, although it’s a very modern story, was kind of tooled to look like it happened a few decades ago. That can be seen in the white Corvette. That can be seen in the Cliff May house, that can be seen in the way it was styled, the LP record player that he’s getting down to with the vintage headphones, and when he’s in the kitchen scrambling eggs and it just feels like it’s got relevance today. But who doesn’t want to live in a mid-century modern house, make eggs in the morning, and drive a white Corvette? You know, those are all things that seem to be fantasies and aspirations for today’s Millenials.

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